Western Provice Blood Transfusion Service

			Platelet Donors

Platelet donation is known technically as aphaeresis donation. Aphaeresis is a technique which involves the drawing of whole blood from a donor and its separation into its constituent plasma, red cells and platelets.

The plasma and/or platelets will be retained, while the remaining red cells are returned to the donor in a process that takes approximately two hours.

Though more than one type of product can be collected during the aphaeresis process, WPBTS mainly uses it to obtain platelets.

What are platelets used for?
Platelets play a vital role in blood clotting to prevent excessive blood loss. Platelet transfusions are used to treat leukaemia, aplastic anaemia and other blood disorders.

Criteria for aphaeresis donation
The same health criteria that apply to regular donors apply to platelet donation.

Platelets must be processed within eight hours of donation and have a shelf life of only five days.

Compared to red blood cells, which can be stored for up to five weeks, platelets must be obtained more frequently. This means that platelet donors are often required to be available at short notice and should also be able spend two hours at each donation session.

It is therefore important that donors have their own transport and are able to attend donation sessions without too much delay.

Aphaeresis donors are usually recruited from the regular donor pool, but are then placed on a completely separate panel and no longer donate whole blood.

For more information about aphaeresis donation or to apply to be considered for inclusion in the aphaeresis donation panel, please refer to the Aphaeresis donation leaflet (PDF format) or contact us at 021-5076396 / info@wpbts.org.za.